Daniel Libeskind to transform former Auschwitz commandant's house into anti-extremism centre

Non-profit organisation Counter Extremism Project has announced that Polish-American architect Daniel Libeskind will design the ARCHER at House 88 learning centre in the former home of an Auschwitz commandant.

Located next to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and former concentration and extermination camps in Oświęcim, Poland, the house will be transformed with the aim of honouring the memory of the site's victims.

The building, numbered 88 and 88a, will contain exhibition spaces and facilities for the Auschwitz Center on Hate, Extremism, and Radicalization (ARCHER), lending its name ARCHER at House 88.

Once occupied by Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss, the transformed house will be used by the Counter Extremism Project as a centre for research, training and policy advocacy to help fight extremism, antisemitism and terrorism.

"By transforming this house, once a symbol of unimaginable evil, into ARCHER at House 88 and a centre of learning, action, and remembrance, we can ensure that future generations never forget what took place here," said Libeskind.

"It is my hope that this project can serve as a legacy that turns horror into action."

Separated from Auschwitz by a garden wall, the home and its setting informed the 2023 film The Zone of Interest. A similar building located nearby was converted into a replica of the house and used for filming.

Libeskind, who is the son of two Polish Holocaust survivors, and his practice Studio Libeskind have yet to reveal designs for ARCHER at House 88.

Working with the Counter Extremism Project, Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and UNESCO, Libeskind's design will aim to preserve the history and significance of the building, focusing on the camp's victims rather than the home's former resident.

"[We are] committed to developing the site with the utmost sensitivity, working with the local community and all relevant partners to preserve appropriately the house's history, time and place while avoiding the memorialisation of its Nazi occupant," said the Counter Extremism Project.

"The 'paradise' that the commandant constructed for his family at House 88 was forever out of reach to the more than one million souls lost at Auschwitz as well as those that survived its horrors, but will now be open to all," it added.

In addition to providing exhibition space and research facilities, ARCHER at House 88 will form a fellowship program for aspiring academics and establish a global database of terrorist, extremist and antisemitic content using artificial intelligence (AI).

"ARCHER at House 88 will stand at the forefront of efforts to confront modern-day extremism, antisemitism and terrorism by providing critical research, education and advocacy inspired by the stark lessons of the Holocaust," said Counter Extremism Project senior director Hans-Jacob Schindler.

"We believe that by equipping communities and policymakers with effective policy strategies, practical tools and knowledge, we can help ensure that such hatred and violence are never normalised again."

One of Libeskind's first completed and most significant buildings is the zigzagging Jewish Museum in Berlin, which opened in 2001. In 2019, the architect created an installation lining a path near the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum, which featured portraits of concentration camp survivors set in three-metre-high steel panels.

The photography is by Adam Trzcionka for the Counter Extremism Project.

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